A few months ago, we trawled through the excesses of P&P’s initial salvo in their Psych Bites series, an underwhelming collection of down under freakrock that didn’t bode well for future volumes. And Zappatta Schmidt (a group led by Ray Knight, with assistance from Eddy Grant) doesn’t exactly set our hearts aflutter with their 1969 progressive funk B-side, “Someone In The Crowd,” which never quite seems to get its act together. Lebanon has never been at the forefront of anything resembling rock and roll, so Chartbusters’ cover of Atomic Rooster’s “Tomorrow Night” delivers more historical curiosity than anything else. Matters improve greatly with Spencer Mac’s dancefloor groover, “Blues Up In Down Town,” with organ fills and funky backbeats inviting all to get down and get with it!

Michael & The Messengers made some headway in the pop charts with their cover of “Just Like Romeo & Juliet” which you can hear on the Nuggets compilation, but a new lineup simply entitled The Messengers are included here with the funky soul stomper, “In The Jungle.” By the time we reach Anvil Chorus’ Sly & The Family Stone-inspired chugadelic anthem, “Rhythm Is The Way” it’s clear that the focus of this compilation is international funk grooves, heavy on organ grinding, booty-shaking percussion, “par-tay” calling shout outs, and happy feet exercises of the libido-losing variety. Female-fronted acts like Germany’s Frumpy and Rattles and Holland’s The Revells offer an open-minded approach to the typically male-dominated psych-prog genre with scorching howlers buoyed by ferocious backing and Athanor’s backward guitars and trance-inducing chanting on “Urizen (Your Reason)” (get it?) will have your head spinning for days.

Elsewhere, there’re lots of percussion-heavy jams that’ll nail you to the dance floor. If you’re curious about how the international music community from Canada, Holland, Poland, Nigeria, Lebanon, and particularly Germany interpreted the manic gyrations of Soul Brother #1, JB, this collection will give you a nice overview. Hard psych rockers from Krokodil, Rote Gitarren, and Orange Peel (featuring future Triumvirat drummer Curt Cress) will lure the punters, Madelaine Chartrand’s glammy, Native American chanting stomper “Ani-Kinu” and the haunting Afro-beat “Mau Mau” will please fans of John Kongos’ old chestnut, “He’s Gonna Step On You Again” and Clash fans who wonder what Janie Jones really sounded like will stare slackjawed at their speakers over her headscratching b-side “Psycho,” which sounds like an old Monty Python routine that the lads had the good sense to leave on the cutting room floor. 6/10 -- Jeff Penczak (30 June, 2010)